Botho Strauss

Botho Strauss
Botho Strauss
	Botho Strauß photographed by Oliver Mark, Uckermark 2007
Born	2 December 1944 (age 79); Naumburg, Germany
Occupation	Playwright; novelist; essayist;
Notable awards	Jean-Paul-Preis (1987); Georg Büchner Prize (1989);

Botho Strauss (German: [ˈboːtoː ˈʃtʁaʊs] ^ⓘ; written as Botho Strauß) (born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist, and essayist.^[1]

Early life

His father was a chemist.

After finishing his secondary education, Strauss studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Cologne and Munich. He never finished his dissertation on Thomas Mann und das Theater. During his studies, he worked as an extra at the Munich Kammerspiele.

Career

Botho Strauß photographed by Oliver Mark in his forest in the Uckermark, 2007

From 1967 to 1970, he was a critic and editorial journalist for the journal Theater heute (Theater Today). Between 1970 and 1975, he worked as a dramaturgical assistant to Peter Stein at the West Berlin Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer.

After his first attempt as a writer, a Gorky film adaptation, he decided to work as a writer. Strauss had his first breakthrough as a dramatist with the 1977 Trilogie des Wiedersehens, five years after the publication of his first work. In 1984, he published Der Junge Mann (The Young Man), translated by Roslyn Theobald in 1995.

With a 1993 Der Spiegel essay, Anschwellender Bocksgesang ("Swelling He-Goat Song")^{[N 1]}^[2] a critical examination of modern civilisation, he triggered a major political controversy as his conservative politics was anathema to many.

In his theoretical work, Strauß showed the influence of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Adorno, but his outlook was also radically anti-bourgeois.

In 2014, Carl Hanser Verlag brought out a compendium of Strauß’s aphorisms called Allein mit allen, spanning close to four decades from 1977 to 2013, and edited by German scholar Sebastian Kleinschmidt.

Strauss lives in Berlin as well as in the nearby Uckermark region. In 2017, he switched from his long-time publisher Carl Hanser Verlag to Rowohlt Verlag.^[3]

Recognition

1974: Hannoverscher Dramatikerpreis
1977: Förderpreis of the Schiller Memorial Prize
1981: Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
1982: Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis
1987: Jean Paul Prize
1989: Georg Büchner Prize
1993: Berlin Theatre Prize
2001: Lessing-Preis der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg [de]
2007: Schiller Memorial Prize

Notes

^ "He-goat song" is the translation of the Greek "τραγῳδία" ("tragedy")

References

^ Adelson, Leslie A. (1984). Crisis of subjectivity: Botho Strauss's challenge to West German prose of the 1970s. Rodopi. pp. 240ff. ISBN 978-90-6203-906-7. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
^ Strauss, Botho (8 February 1993). "Anschwellender Bocksgesang". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 15 October 2019.
^ "Botho Strauß künftig bei Rowohlt". Boersenblatt.net (in German). 26 January 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2017.

External links

Botho Strauß: New German dramatic art. Goethe-Instituts Website
"Books in Brief: Fiction" on Couples, Passersby by Erik Burns, The New York Times (29 December 1996)

[He-goat_song-2] "He-goat song" is the translation of the Greek "τραγῳδία" ("tragedy")

[Adelson1984-1] Adelson, Leslie A. (1984). Crisis of subjectivity: Botho Strauss's challenge to West German prose of the 1970s. Rodopi. pp. 240ff. ISBN 978-90-6203-906-7. Retrieved 25 April 2011.

[Anschwellender_Bocksgesang_-_DER_SPIEGEL-3] Strauss, Botho (8 February 1993). "Anschwellender Bocksgesang". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 15 October 2019.

[Botho_Strauß_künftig_bei_Rowohlt-4] "Botho Strauß künftig bei Rowohlt". Boersenblatt.net (in German). 26 January 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2017.

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